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Justin Taylor
Justin Taylor is one of the main characters on Queer As Folk. Portrayed by actor Randy Harrison, Justin would spend most of the series as the partner of Brian Kinney. Background and personality In the pilot episode, Justin Taylor is a high school student at St. James Academy, a private school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Craig Taylor, owns an electronics business called Taylor Electronics, and his mother, Jennifer, is a real estate agent. During the first season, Justin's parents struggle to come to terms with their son's homosexuality. His father kicks him out of the house, and Justin remains estranged from his father for the rest of the series. While his mother Jennifer takes a little time to understand her son, after several months, she becomes supportive of Justin and becomes involved in PFLAG. Justin is teased by many of the male students at his school who suspect he is gay, and he spends most of his time with his best friend Daphne Chanders. He excels at school and desires to be an artist. After meeting Brian Kinney, Justin is brought into Brian's circle of friends, with Michael Novotny's mother, Debbie Novotny, soon treating Justin as another son. Justin appreciates romance and aspires to be monogamous with Brian; in later seasons, he mentions wanting to get married and have a family. Justin attends the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts and works on the Rage comic book with Michael. Overview Brian meets Justin, a virgin, outside the gay club Babylon, and takes him home to have sex with him. Justin is responsible for naming Gus, Brian and Lindsay's biological son. After their encounter, Justin falls in love with Brian going as far as to tell his friend Daphne "I saw the face of God," and eventually gets Brian to have sex with him again, breaking Brian's own rule of not having sex with the same person more than once. This causes Brian's best friend Michael to become jealous and act hostile towards Justin. Justin confides in his best friend Daphne. Late in Season 1, she asks him to be the boy to take her virginity, since he is experienced. He agrees, and she falls in love with him the same way Justin fell in love with Brian. However, Justin shoots down her advances, and although it led to an altercation, they went back to being friends. Justin tries a number of things to get Brian to love him back, including competing in (and winning) the "King of Babylon" contest, stealing one of Brian's tricks, dancing with guys Brian is interested in, and asking Brian to the prom, among other things. Despite initially turning Justin down, Brian shows up at Justin's prom and dances with him, kissing him in front of everybody. Justin described it as "the best night of his life." After his prom, he is bashed in the head with a baseball bat by a fellow student, Chris Hobbs, resulting in a two week-long coma, and brain damage that causes limited use of his hand. This event has impacted his life immensely and its effects are seen throughout the series. Justin is accepted to Dartmouth College but opts to go to the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts to pursue his dreams. With Justin's diminished use of his drawing hand, Brian gets a drawing computer for Justin to use. He continues his arts degree at PIFA and with Brian's friend Michael Novotny, creates a gay superhero comic called Rage, with stories often based on their own lives. He experiences financial trouble when his father refuses to pay for his tuition. He resorts to becoming a go-go dancer at Babylon, despite Brian's repeated offers to help him out financially. Justin's new job takes its toll on him, the night shift causing him to lack energy during the daytime. After a disastrous experience at a party he was forced to accompany his boss to, where a number of men tried to rape him, he finally quits his job and accepts Brian's financial assistance. After countless tries to get Brian to reveal his true feelings for him, Justin decides to leave Brian for a new guy. He starts a relationship with Ethan Gold, a fellow student and talented violinist. After Ethan cheats on him with a fan after his first professional gig, Justin takes Daphne's advice and tries to win Brian back by getting a placement at Brian's advertisement agency. After a few tense weeks, Justin finally manages to seduce Brian once more in his office late one night. This sparks them to reconcile and continue their relationship. On more than one occasion, Justin has saved Brian from legal problems. The first time, he blackmailed Kip into dropping the sexual harassment lawsuit against Vanguard and Brian. The second time, while he is still with Ethan, he makes Brian's nephew tell the truth about whether or not he had molested him. Justin drops out of college after a disagreement with the head of the internship program after it is discovered that he has been having sexual relations with his boss, Brian, and sabotaging Chief Jim Stockwell's ad campaign. During the fifth and final season, Brian and Justin's relationship becomes more unstable. Justin works on a movie version of "Rage" but the project is canceled. When Justin returns from Los Angeles and moves back in with Brian, he expects them to settle down, which Brian still doesn't want to. He leaves Brian, but after a bomb explosion at Babylon, Brian admits his love for Justin, asking him to marry him. They plan to get married, but as the date draws closer, Justin realizes that Brian is trying to become someone he isn't, just to make Justin happy. Similarly, Brian realizes that Justin is giving up his career as an artist to settle down with him. He knew how important being an artist was to him, so he tells Justin that he should go to New York City to pursue his art career. Neither of them wanted to live with someone who would give up their lives to be with the other. Brian did not really want him to go, but he would not dare stand in the way of him pursuing his dream. On their last night together before he left for New York, Justin finds that Brian has not returned the wedding rings. He then tells Brian that they don't need wedding rings or vows to prove they love each other. They spent one last beautiful night together and when Brian awoke, Justin was gone. Justin had reassured Brian that they would continue to see each other frequently. This was not the end of their relationship. They loved each other and would be together. They were soulmates. Category:St. James students Category:IFA students Category:Liberty Diner staff Category:American gay men Category:Artists Category:Waiting staff Category:Gay men who have had sex with women